1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a multi-layer, thermoplastic heat-sealable film suitable for conventional packaging applications.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Oriented polypropylene film has become a useful and widely accepted packaging film because of its good moisture barrier, stiffness, high strength, and good optical properties. However, the tear strength of polypropylene films is relatively low and improvement has long been needed. Polybutylene films are known to give the strongest tear strength among the unsubstituted polyalphaolefins. However, blending polybutylene into polypropylene cannot improve the tear strength of polypropylene significantly. The tear strength of polypropylene may, however, be significantly improved by coextruding polybutylene. The processability of a polypropylene/polybutylene structure film is rather poor if the polybutylene is used as a surface layer, due to the sticky nature of polybutylene Just prepared from the melt. By sandwiching polybutylene as a core layer, the sticky problem is then eliminated. Adding a small amount of high melt index polybutylene in the polypropylene layers further improves the processability and optics of the laminated films.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,972,964 issued to D. J. Doentremont, discloses a coating composition for heat-shrinkable thermoplastic film comprising blends of polybutene-1 with ethylene-propylene copolymer to provide abuse resistance with reduced tackiness without compromising the orientability of the base film. However, in order to achieve this objective Doentremont specifies that the coating composition must have a polybutene-1 constituent in the range of 5%-40% by weight and that it is undesirable to have more than 40% polybutene-1. Such a coating composition, while achieving the objectives of abuse resistance and reduced tackiness, does not impart good heat sealability to the film.
U.S. Defensive Publication No. T-955,009 (R. C. Lansbury and T. G. Heggs, Feb. 1, 1977) addresses the problem of heat sealability directly. Lansbury and Heggs have found that they can improve the sealability of polypropylene film by coextruding the polypropylene substrate with a coating composition comprising a blend of 10%-59% (by weight) ethylene-propylene copolymer with 41%-90% (by weight) of a homo- or copolymer of a C.sub.4 to C.sub.10 alpha-olefin to a polypropylene core with a thin coating of such composition on one or both sides.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,125,662; 4,275,120; 4,340,060; 4,340,641; 4,339,493; 4,339,494; 4,339,495; and 4,339,496 disclose laminated films having a polypropylene core and polybutylene outer layers.